Carney has ‘productive’ phone call with Trump amid bilateral tensions

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a “productive and wide-ranging” phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday morning. 

“We focused on trade challenges, opportunities, building a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S., and supporting long-term peace and security for Ukraine and Europe,” Carney said in a post on social media. 

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Trump and Carney “agreed to reconvene shortly.”

A Trump administration official confirmed the call and said Trump and Carney had discussions about trade. The president has not commented on the conversation.

It marks the first phone call between the two leaders since Trump’s trade deal deadline passed earlier this month and the president pushed up tariffs on Canada to 35 per cent. Those tariffs do not apply to goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade. 

The White House said the duties increased because Ottawa did not do enough to curb the flow of fentanyl and pointed to Canada’s implementation of retaliatory tariffs.

U.S. government data shows a minuscule amount of fentanyl is seized at the northern border.

When previously asked about the holdup in Canadian negotiations, Trump said “they have to pay a fair rate.”

Carney and Trump agreed last spring to negotiate a new economic and security partnership following the Canadian election in April. At the G7 leaders’ summit in June, Carney said they were targeting a late-July deadline. Trump moved that unilaterally to Aug. 1.

Ottawa had dampened expectations of any deal materializing ahead the deadline and Carney has said he’ll only make an agreement that is good for Canada. 

Canada is also being hammered by tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles. 

Earlier Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand had her first official meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington. 

Anand and Rubio shook hands in front of Canadian and American flags in a room of the U.S. State Department. Neither responded to questions from reporters.

Global Affairs Canada in a news release described the meeting as collaborative and said they talked about the Canada-U.S. relationship as well as cooperation on shared priorities such as Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine, Arctic security and the security crisis in Haiti.

Global Affairs Canada said “they also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the urgent need for humanitarian aid to flow unobstructed, for Hamas to lay down its arms and for the hostages to be returned.”

The State Department said the discussion included “Hamas’s ongoing obstruction of peace in Gaza.”

Trump last month criticized Carney’s move to recognize a Palestinian state. 

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The State Department under Rubio has taken significant action to quell criticism of Israel’s actions such as revoking visas for foreign students who voiced support for Palestine and sanctioning officials with the International Criminal Court pursuing cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former Israeli defence minister.

Anand on Thursday joined 20 other foreign ministers from Europe, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom in condemning Israel for giving final approval to a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank. 

A joint letter from the foreign ministers said it will “make a two-state solution impossible.”

“We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” the letter said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.